The Center Finds Its Voice in Stimulus Debate–Sort Of

One of Washington’s biggest problems in recent years has been that it resembles a doughnut: It’s got a hole in the center.

Thanks to the debate over the economic-stimulus package, a hardy band of senators from both parties may have begun to fill up that hole in the political middle. Thursday night this band of centrists produced a plan to cut the stimulus bill’s spending by perhaps $100 billion; their proposal is likely to be voted on by the full Senate Friday.

Along the way, the quest for changes in the stimulus package just might have brought together a group of men and women who could form a durable centrist bloc to hold sway in the era of Obama.

Of course, their quest also has been full of fits and starts and uncertainty, and it has shown the difficulty of building bridges between left and right. While the effort has shown the potential it has also shown there is a distance to travel before the center becomes a coherent political force.

This quest to find solid ground in the political center has been led in large measure by the gentlewoman from Caribou, Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins. She’s a card-carrying moderate whose resounding November re-election was one of the few bright spots for the GOP last year.

In the past few days, Sen. Collins and about 20 other senators from both parties — who occupy what might vaguely be called the center ground in the political spectrum — have quietly banded together to pull the stimulus package to a place where it could attract more Republican votes.

Their goal was to cut the $900 billion price tag by slicing out some spending projects that strike moderates on both sides as excessive or decidedly non-stimulating. After two days of trying, they succeeded on Thursday night in producing a plan to do precisely that.

Along the way, they were implicitly encouraged by President Barack Obama, who met with Sen. Collins privately Wednesday, and who later implied that he would trade some stimulus spending for more Republican votes, which would give his signature economic plan a broader base of support.

The centrists’ potential power flows in large measure from the simple math of the Senate. As strong as the Democratic Senate majority is, it still comes up just short of the 60 votes needed to break filibusters. That means that on the really important votes Democrats need to attract at least a Republican or two to their side to win, while avoiding losing any of their own members.

That gives leverage — or should, at least — to the moderate Republicans that Democrats need at times like these, as well as to the more-conservative Democrats who might jump off the party’s bandwagon if it veers too far to the left. The moderates’ modest numbers matter less than the position they occupy in the Senate’s delicate balance of power.

The stimulus debate has been the first opportunity for moderates to translate this potential into real power. The unlikely leader of the effort has turned out to be Sen. Collins. She and her Maine Senate colleague, Olympia Snowe, will always represent the two Republican moderates most within reach of the Democratic majority. That allows them to demand movement in their direction in return.

On the stimulus bill, Sen. Collins combined with conservative Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska to form a kind of bipartisan tag team seeking changes. They became the leaders of a rump group of about 20 sympathetic lawmakers from both parties who met in hallways and offices, and eventually in a conference room far removed from the Senate floor.

On the Republican side, that group has included Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, George Voinovich of Ohio and Mel Martinez of Florida. On the Democratic side, it has included Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Mark Warner of Virginia, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana.

Somewhere in that mix lies a potential centrist bloc that could really make a difference. But as the stimulus debate dragged on Thursday, the group’s hopes and goals grew more modest. Sen. Collins once hoped to pull off a virtual rewrite of the stimulus bill, to get its cost down to about $600 billion. By the end of the day, that had been reduced to the plan that finally emerged to get the price tag closer to $800 billion.

The strains in their effort started to show in other ways. The Senate’s Democratic leaders, for instance, displayed annoyance that the moderates were holding up progress.

Yet if the Senate now follows the moderates’ lead in reducing the cost of the stimulus package, a pattern may have been established. There will always be limits to centrists’ influence, of course. Down deep, Democrats really consider only three Republican senators to be true moderates: Sens. Collins, Snowe and Specter. And even that small group is hampered by tensions between the two senators from Maine.

Still, compared to the House, where the stimulus bill passed without a single Republican vote, the Senate may have just shown that it has a meaningful bipartisan center. Maybe, just maybe, that center will rise again.

Comments (5 of 14)

the stimulus bill is a dead end for our country
it may sound good to some and the road may seem smooth at first
but will end up in a dead end..please vote no no no no no

5:18 pm February 9, 2009

daniel cabrera wrote :

Anyone with sufficient gray matter inside the skull, can see the herculeans efforts by Pres Obama to sell this 'simulus'-piece of yunk.

He still in the 'campaign mode', but NOT IN THE LEADERSHIP MODE.
Does he has required leadership?,...or is he only a 'front image' for the masses?

This scenario was told before to all fo you , and not only by trully yours,but also by some others and many of you answered :- ..."morons are talking..." , and worst comments as well.
No matters really, because if,...IF this so called 'stimuls' goes on, many things are going to be stimulated.

But , you see? it is appropiate not to tell anything more, for it is better , the events unveil right in front of everyone. At that point I am open to all the explanations/(excuses) to be given then, as result of the disgrace where we are all going to fall .

So I will be prudent and wait until I hear from you.

Sleep well,
Daniel Cabrera
Merrillville, Indiana

PS: Perhaps is ok for this 'stimuls' makes it through so many out
there will get a lesson.

3:53 pm February 8, 2009

daniel cabrera wrote :

ABOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH

It seem, majority of democrats are just fix in their own ideas and nothing else. Republicans are different, they listen to others, too,..they articulate their objections, of course, energetically and with passion ( all that is ok) but exercise FREEDOM OF SPEECH practices,…so everyone can manifest their concerns. For expample ,the blog spectrum.

To ilustrate this directly, allow me to show everyone something never posted by CNNPOLITICAL BLOG. I,however, sent it to CNN to EVERY PROGRAM AND JOURNALIST THROUGH THEIR E-MAIL GRID, SO THEY HAVE IT IN THEIR FACES .

I also sent it in the same manner to to other tv tabloid, MSNBC. You bet they hate me for that and I do not know how many of them (if any) read it or did pay some attention to my writing.

So here it is;

“” Biden, ’shaking hands with the russians’? Does he trust them?

This idea is not good, for russians were poven to be not good in the past , logic dictates they will not be any different this time.

Here is a theory, Obama (although ‘marked as president’) is just but a ‘front’ for the masses. the ‘hidden one ‘ are out there, and need to be IDENTIFIED AND STOP LIKE OBAMA.

This group is intersted into destroy America the way we always had been. The targets are economy and national security primarily, for they are the main ones.

But America is wakening from the ‘letargic Obamanizing phase’ and this GROUP OF DESTRUCTION knows that,…. that and they are desperated,…. and want to push everything fast : - “…..as soon as possible,….quick and swiftly…” WHERE WE HEARD THOSE WORDS BEFORE? ,…CAN ANYONE TELL?

Got it now? I bet many of you out there did,…including this pathetic tv tabloid, CNN (actually they should suspect this all along ,…they are not presicelly stupid ,…just roten fanatics)

Anyway, sleep well,

Do not choke on your pop-corn.

Daniel Cabrera
Merrillville, Indiana

PS, If posted you will have oportunity to prove wrong ( I may be wrong, you know?)
But I think that this pathetic tv tabloid blog , CNN will not post it, for THEY ARE
SO INSECURE AND DO NOT BELEIVE AND/OR HONOR (like Pelosi and other
weeds) FREEDOM OF SPEECH. “”

___________Ok, there you have it. I welcome all opinions, favourable and unfavourables.

Many of you might think I am republican. No, I am not, I am a free thinker that happens to see that right now the conservatives-republicans seems to be the ones fighting for the values and decency and ways that characterize this great land of ours.

Respectfully,
Daniel Cabrera
Merrillville, Indiana

6:32 pm February 7, 2009

daniel cabrera wrote :

Honesty, decency, morality ;- those words are said to be lack in the spirit of the conservatives agenda. That is curious because right now the present administration is loaded with individuals of questionable integrity and honesty,not to mention lack of knowledge to look after our interest and neither after our security as a nation.

We have to be clear on this, people.

Among patriots, true ones, we have to admint that is in the republican spectrum where we can find those who are fighting for what we are ,… for the values and positives things that characterize this great nation as the stronghold for justice and freedom on this planet.

Did anyone noticed how the deterioration of our ways are fading away every day with the avid efforts from the democrats? Think about this for I am not going to go into details this time. Sufice is to say that EVERYONE MUST WATCH THE MOVES OF THIS PRESENT ADMINISTRATION VERY VERY CAREFULY FOR IS REASONABLE TO BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE ‘ENEMIES OF THE STATE’ INTERESTED TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY,…” AS SOON AS POSIBLE, WITH FIRM AND SWIFT MOVES…”

So, be alert, get informed, analyze,..do not fall behind,

KNOWLEDGE IS THE REAL POWER, SO GET IT NOW ! INVESTIGATE!

Sincerely,
Daniel Cabrera
Merrillville, Indiana

11:14 pm February 6, 2009

daniel cabrera wrote :

What if...?

SCENARIO - WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

Could it be possible that all this thing is just part of a MASTER PLAN to throw America into socialism-marxism,…and eventually into communism?

Could it be possible that Obama (although the tittle is of as ‘president’) is just but a ‘front’ in all of this? That he is let’s say like a ‘TROJAN HORSE FACTOR’ to open the doors to this ‘MASTER PLAN’?

Perhaps the true integrants of the MASTER PLAN MACHINE, they need to be identified and stop in time, before go any further.Perhaps out there there are a solid and hidden group ENEMIES OF THE STATE, that want America ‘CHANGED’ to what is not our way of life.

Hummmm Putin in Russia seems to be coming back with ideas of grandeour to re-stablish the old order,…they are already in our very own backyard here in the caribean area teaming-up with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, correct?

Is this sounds science fiction to you?,….too speculative?
I bet is a very scary scenario,…chilly,… a real bloody hell, isn’t it?

Well,...at times, it seems to me that way and I do hope this is not the hidden reality,…because if by any chance is just as I described?….oh! Great Scott ! , God help us !
Let’s be very observant, and alert. Let’s get information and knowledge for the real power is indeed, that - KNOWLEDGE !

Sleep well,
Daniel Cabrera
Merrillville, Indiana

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Capital Journal is WSJ.com’s unique site for analysis of the political and policy maneuvering in Washington in the era of Barack Obama. It features the Capital Journal columns and occasional other postings by executive Washington editor Gerald F. Seib, and will house Political Wisdom, the Journal’s daily aggregation of the smartest political analysis from around the Internet. Also look for regular columns by Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute and occasional contributions from others.